


certain things that should be left unsaid

by kadma



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Angst, F/F, Goodbyes, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-17
Packaged: 2018-12-29 22:22:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12094716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kadma/pseuds/kadma
Summary: A thousand messages are sent and received in one smouldering moment.Written for #8 in theShakespeare Quote Prompt Table.





	certain things that should be left unsaid

**Author's Note:**

> "For where thou art, there is the world itself, and where thou art not, desolation." - Henry IV
> 
> set during & after the 06/09/17 episode of NXT.

It's her last day in this ring, her last night in this building. She’s going home for a little while -- or at least, she's going to what rehabilitation center she’ll have to call home, and then, then she'll venture into the unknown, head held high and shoulders thrown back, her _uchikake_ -inspired robe swirling around her body as she makes her way past gorilla.

She's done this before. She's said goodbye to places she's stayed in for much, much longer than her five-hundred-and-twenty-three days in NXT. And this time, she starts strong. Mr. Regal introduces her with warm reverence; she's proud to say she's lived up to his every word. She surveys the heated crowd, takes in their adoration, and reflects a portion right back at them.

The sequence unfolds according to her experiences and expectations until the moment _they_ start pouring out. The locker room spills onto the stage in the haphazard way large groups of people travel across small spaces. For a moment, she's reminded of being back in her city, shoving her way through packed bodies in subway stations and those agonising hours in the sweltering heat, waiting for the snack-stand queues to thin out. Osaka will always be the truest of her homes.

But Asuka recovers quickly, coolly.

The crowd parts, men and women stepping aside to show Asuka the one face she is not expecting, the one face who pulls from her a small sound of surprise, the one face that always wears two parts fury and one part of a taunt. Ember enters the ring, eyes blazing, and looks at Asuka, and Asuka looks right back, frosty and unforgiving. A thousand messages are sent and received in one smouldering moment.

Ember softens an inch; she extends her hand, showily, and Asuka comes within half a second of touching that dark, mesmerising skin before Ember pulls her in, closer than they've ever been, face-to-face, body-to-body, and squeezes the air out of her lungs. Asuka's arms curl around Ember's body, like metal melding to metal.

The rest of the segment is a blur. Asuka's not quite crying as the audience thanks her repeatedly. She catches the heady scent of the bouquet before she sees its flame-red petals.

At the very moment Triple H takes it away, Asuka notices just how small her title, _the_ title, looks in his massive hands. And then it's gone and she feels emptied.

She gives an interview here, makes a statement there. She tucks her chin into her chest and makes her way back to the Performance Center locker room for the final time. The lack of women, of athletes, is mirrored by the eerie stillness.

Asuka sinks onto a metal bench, the flowers suddenly too heavy to carry.

The heat of Ember's body lingers on her skin, fiery like her name, vivid and unforgettable, like every encounter they've had in that NXT ring. But through the verbal slashes and physical strikes, she's come out on top. She always comes out on top.

Except in this moment, as her shoulders tremble under the memory of Ember's last, lingering look, Asuka no longer feels like the winner.


End file.
